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It's a 9 celled Pely kite, with some minor mods. The cells are 24" tall along the longerons, about 22" deep at the masts (2/3 of a SkyShark tube,) the cells are 45 degree angles, and the wings are 22" wide to match the width of the cells.

It's framed with SS P300 longerons and spreaders, P200 masts.

Here's some pics after spending a few hours in the air on Tuesday afternoon (11/3/09) from the shakedown flight. It's about 13' wide at the top and 6' tall in the center.

As far as breakdown, the masts are in 2 pieces ferruled at the T's in the middle of each cell. After de-tensioning the sails at the wing tips, they get removed from the ferrule and remain attached to the kite at the bridge between the points. The spreaders get removed and the longerons remain. For storage or travel (I haven't done this yet, those pics were after initial framing, rigging, and from the first flight) it will roll up into a tube centered around the longerons, about 6' long. I suppose I could remove the center-most 2 longerons and break them down for a shorter tube, but I don't think this is necessary (for me, personally) - I have no problem with a tube that long or a bit longer (I've got a few )

As far as weight of the spars: It has 21 SkyShark P300 tubes cut up in various lengths (not all continuous, but it uses that many) and 6 SkyShark P200 tubes (again, not all continuous)

According to the published or catalog weights of those tubes, the frame would weigh 444 grams or 15.7 oz (nearly 1 lb) - but that doesn't include the ferrules and fittings.

It has quite a bit of sail area and it feels very light for its size in hand. It seems to float at times. Doesn't requre much wind at all.

Thanks! The edge binding was no big deal, really. Biggest pain was hot cutting all of the strips; I used 3/4" wide strips of 0.75 oz Ripstop single-folded (3/8" finished width)

I have a couple of videos too -

They're from a couple from differing vantage points. The first is on a short tether and the kite was being affected by ground buffets to a degree; The second I let out about another 100' of line and put it in some smoother air. Weather page said 12 mph, I think it was closer to 10.

Does that mean that you subtly scalloped all the panels (A smooth, maybe round curve, and the maximum scallop depth is 3.5% the length of the edge?) so that the tension along the edges would make everything lie flat, rather than creating little tension pleats along the edges?

Does that mean that you subtly scalloped all the panels (A smooth, maybe round curve, and the maximum scallop depth is 3.5% the length of the edge?) so that the tension along the edges would make everything lie flat, rather than creating little tension pleats along the edges?

If so, "wow" and "yikes"!! If not, please explain!

Yes, that's exactly right.

If you look at the pictures above of the kite on the ground, a few of the perspective shots really show that the black bound edges are all curved.

What I do is draw and print my templates in AutoCAD. This makes it very easy to draw the arc at whatever depth you want. I first draw the panel with straight edges, then I use the offset function to copy the edge lines inward to whatever depth I calculate (3.5% of the span of the edge in the case of this kite) and then drawn an arc whose center is the midpoint of the offset line and endpoints are the original sail corners. AutoCad makes it a smooth curve going through those three points like snap-bang-done.

I then print out my templates on our large format printer, tape them to Matte board (like picture framing matte that I get from Hobby Lobby when it's on sale) and cut the templates out with an x-acto or excel hobby knife.

These pics are from a previous build (a different kite) but it shows what I was describing above regarding the templates.

After drawing in AutoCAD and printing, it is applied to Matte Board and then cut out with a hobby knife. I've already started in this pic:

The curves are cut in a couple of passes with a slow, steady hand:

Cutting finished before removal of the scraps:

Finished Template:

The template is used to trace the pattern on to the fabric and then the fabric is cut by hand with a hobby knife (only I use a finer, #11 blade and handle for cutting the fabric) The steel straight edge is used for the straight lines and the curves are cut freehand.

That template was used to make the black and white center panel on this kite:

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